Improvement in type-writers and phonotypic notation



J. C. ZACHOS.

TYPE WRITERS AND rnonowrzc NOTATION.

No.175.89Z. Patented April 11, i876.

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Witnesses In renlar;

N. PETERS, PKOTO IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII III c4 I Oognates:

"UNITED STATES PATENT ,OFFIOE.

JOHN G. ZAOHOS, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN TYPE-WRITERS ANDIPHQNOTYPINC 10 m.-

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 175,892, dated April 11, 1876; application filed- December 24,1875.

- To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN G. ZAOHOS, of the city of New York, N. Y., have invented a Type Reporting-Machine, of which the following is a specification: 1

The subject of my invention 1s an instrument or nrachine for imprinting, as signs of sounds, a new system of short-hand (which I call stenophonotypy) by means of a special scheme of selected types, combined with and connected by suitable mechanism to the keys of two special key-boards, whereby, with comparatively fewtouchesnpon said key-boards, a syllable, word, or short phrase is imprinted simultaneously in the aforesaid short-hand,

enabling the operator to report speech with greater facility and speed than has hitherto been done by any instrument. I

Referring to my drawings, Figure 1 is a; top

, View of my improved reporting-instrument,

the inking apparatus, v paper-shifting, and printing devices being removed, and not shown, as presenting no novelty, and therefore notrequired to illustrate my invention.

B is the key-board controlled by the left hand, and D is the key-board controlled by the right hand, of the operator. X is the scheme of types, represented at rest in Fig. 2,

and as spelling the word splints, in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a side view of one of the sliding My stenophonotype alphabet is constructed thus, taking letters and marks as already used to represent sounds, andarranging them in the following order:

Twenty towel-sounds and signs.

AE A finn.

Twenty-three consonant sounds and signs. PrimaryrP T J KF r s s N MLRYH. Gognates: B D ch G V th Z Zh Ng.

, so that under a primary sign we have the F sign of sound cognate thereof, as A-A, P-- 1 B, Jch,T-th, N--Ng.

If from this table of sound-signs we select for use only those called primary, to represent all elementary sounds in'recording speech, these primary signs would make what I call a stenophonotype alphabet, and the text produced by the exclusive use of these signs would be a stenophonotype text. Theprinciple of this alphabet is'that it represents all the'sounds by a minimum of signs, andeach sign, if it represents more than one sound, is confined to its cognates or similar sounds, with only one alternate in each case, except that of W; hence, the text resulting has a key in these principles by whichit can easily be read by the light of the context, and'a little practice in phonetic reading. This reduction in the number of signs used is very important in reducing the number of types and keys to a compass within the practical limits of a reporting-machine. Its novelty consists in the fact that while there are several phonotypic and phonographic alphabets that have similar signsfor similar sounds, this is the first, of which I have any knowledge, that on a'regular principle adopts the same sign for all similar sounds, and thus makes a new form of legible text. Any form of signs may be s'elected on the same principle. Theparticnlar signs adopted in my system are taken preferably" and marked, as I think, conveniently with diacritic marks for the purpose of discriminating in sounds. I have, therefore, adopted the following alphabet of signs to be used in my phonotype reporter:

Vowel-signs, (13): A E l C A E i A 66W. Consonant-signs, (14): P T T S g F K J N MLRYH.

These twenty-seven signs represent all the elementary sounds of English, (commonly reckoned as forty-one). Each sign represents one sound, or two sounds, if these have-the affinity or resemblance that makes them cognates. The W, through these resemblances, is made to represent four sounds. It is found by experience that the context and alittle practice soon make the resulting text readily legible. a

The novelty of the stenophonot-ypesconsists not in the fact that they, are signs to represent sounds in speech, nor in the fact that they are selected fr'om the English alphabet, and suitably marked, but that they are selected as signs of sounds on a special principle, which qualifies them to represent all the elementary sounds of English withthe fewest,

signs, and to be used for a type-writing instrument.

X represents my schemeof stenophonotypes, or the order and arrangement of types in my reporting instrument.

This scheme is invariable, definite, and special, both as respects the arrangement, classification, and order of the groups 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,

6, &c., and as regards the kind and number of stenophonotypes composing each group, but the order in which-said types is' arranged in each group is not material, and may be changed.

The groups 1, 2,'and' 3 are composed of "consonant-sounds, which are to imprint before the vowel-sounds. The groups 4, 5, and 6am voweLsounds, including the W, which is sometimes a consonant' The groups 7', 8, 9, 10,

' and 11 are consonant-sounds, which imp'rint' after the vowel-sounds; and the last group 12 is composed of the hyphen forconnecting syllables, and of the period for indicating ends of sentences It would be out of place to enumerate here all the reasons which have-"guided me both in the selection of the kind and number of types in each group, or in thearrang'ement of the 'groupsamong themselves; It suilices to say that after careful study I have found the scheme Ihere present to be the best adapted for the requirements of a reporting -in's'tru ment.

Each group of type is mounted upon a slid-' ing bar, which is represented in side view by Fig. 3, where theletters dd-d, &c.-, indicate the types.

The twelve sliding bars 1 '2 3 4 5, 860., Fig. 2, upon which are mounted the types", have a free motion inthe direction of the arrows on} a, so thatany one type from thegr'oup'on the bar maybe brought to a point on thelineof printing G G, by sliding the -bar in the direc tion of the arrow a,'in order that by sliding one or several of the barssimultaneously "u-n til the proper types are on the line G G to form a syllable, a word, or a phrase, the'said syllable, word, or phrase may be imprinted by one pressure on the types which are on said line G G, as illustrated in Fig. 1, where the bars'arepmoved so as to spell the word splints! The sliding bars 1 2 3 4 5, 860. areeonnected by suitablemechanism with the keys of the key-boards B and D, in such a manner that when a key of said key-boards is depressedor acted upon one of the 'b'arswill be made to slide forward in the direction of the arrow at until the type of the group, mounted upon the said bar, which corresponds to the letter or sign marked upon the key acted upon, is brought in position on the line of. print Gr bars-and groups of consonants, which are in-- G, each key thus being connected with a corresponding letter or sign on one of the twelve brought back by suitable mechanism acting upon all the bars after every imprinting of a syllable, word, or phrase by the action of the key marked movement, which, at the same time that it prints and causes the paper to shift for receiving the next impression, acts upon a releasearrangement of any kind.

The keyboard B is designed exclusively for the left hand, and its keys govern the movehient of the bars 4, 5, and '6, where the groups of types representing vowels are arranged, andal'so the bar 12, where'are located the hy-' *plien and period.

The key-board Dis divided by the line as as, all the keys above "which correspond to the tended to'imp'rin't after the vowels in the orderof the scheme, or the bars 7, 8,9, 10, and 11, and all the'ke'ys below the line mm correspondingto the bars 1,2, and 3, act thereon so as to-control the groups of consonants'which imprint before the vowels. This broad classifi cation renders thee'xecution upon the key-- board D more "comprehensive and convenient. Inorder to facilitate further the operation of the mind in locating at once a letter in its drawings or the keys may be tinted of differ proper order to imprint by selecting the proper key, when the same letter is repeat'ed'on the key-board, the keys maybe numbered to correspond to the bar or group to which it re-= I -ates in the scheme X, as indicated in my ent colors, and the bars or groups in the scheme tinted to correspond therewith,Ias -I have done in my model.

each of the keys, as designated on the keys The assignment ofthe-particular letters to themselves, is made on a special plan, and for a given purpose, so that the operator can strike as many keys, all. at once, as may be necessary to write asyllable, a word, 'or a phrase, 'with'ast'ew points of contact of the fingers as possible. I T

I obtain this result not only by placing as much-as practicable all the keys within an easy range of the fingers of the operator, but by arranging the letters in clusters of seven keys, placing on the central key of the cluster that letter which, in writing the language by stenophonotypy, is often found-associated with six other letters, which six letters .I place on the six keys surrounding the central key, "so

that the eentral keycan be struck, as may be" required, at the same time with either of the Some adjacent keys, by one point of contact.

HEFNS NT RT waste 3 times, even three letters may be struck with one point of contact, as seen in my drawings, on Fig. 1, where the finger placed at Z depresses the three keys marked S, P, and L, and brings forward the corresponding letters, S P L on the line of print G G.

In the key-board B, we have the W cluster, or that cluster of which W is the center, which enables us to form the combinations WU, WI, WE, WA, WE, WI.

In the lower part of the key-board D we find the S and the It clusters, Which'give the combinations SN, SM, SP, SD, SK, ST, SR, and TR, SR, TB, FR, PR.

In the upper section of the key-board D there are ten'such clusters S, L, S, T, R, K, 'I, R, S, and J, producing useful combinations of consonants, which imprint after vowels.

I have described my groups of types as mounted upon sliding bars, but it is evident that the same result may be obtained either by placing said types on the periphery of Wheels or sectors vibrating or rotating from a center, or that each type may be on a separate hammer, which may be arranged in groups to correspond to my groups, and made to converge on points of a common line of print, obtaining the same result as my sliding bars without changing the principle of my classification. I

The following is a sample of my stenophonotype text:

NT PEKiNN KOT KRATT T ToT FORM NT FOT N TAaK s WUSPI'IN T his FT ET.

NT RT Wos As printed by my instrument, the letters would not always be in juxtaposition, as in the above example, owing to the space occupied by those intervening groups, letters of which are not wanted to form a word printed thus-in the example in my drawings a 123426789101112 G---SPL I NTS G, where the groups 4, 6, 7, and 8 do not print; but as my paper is made to move at right angles to the line G G, or from bottom to top, each printing, whether it be a syllable,-a word,

or a phrase, occupies a full line, and therefore no confusion can arise from the disjointment of the letters. U i

What I claim as my invention 'is- 1. In a system of phonotype notation the means employed ofrepresenting the sounds of the English language, consisting, essentially,. of the vowel and consonant characters, and the certain diacritical marks, substantially as herein described and shown, for the purpose set forth 2. In a type-writing machine, the key-boards B and D, the finger-keys of which are provided with their respective vowel and consonant signs, combined in groups, and relatively arranged, substantially in the manner and for the purpose set forth.

3. In a type-writer, the key-boards B and D, and the slide-bars l to 12, combined. and arranged to operate substantially as described.

J. G. ZAGHOS.

Witnesses H. GENGEMBRE HUBERT,

ORAN W. MORRIS. 

